In one sense, spectacle shows represent acute risk aversion on the part of museums. It's cousin to the disease that has sacked Hollywood, where only remakes and sequels promise the margins that justify a global blockbuster production—so only remakes and sequels get greenlighted.
— citylab

A comment in facebook from Vasif Kortun acutely puts the question in words."A question rises now in Indiana: Can a pizzeria (or pharmacy, or pediatrics practice) discriminate against LGBTQ families (or seniors, or children) because the business as an entity feels it has a religious obligation to... View full entry

“People used to complain that people went to New York to buy what they could buy in LA,” said Kathy Halbreich, the associate director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “I don’t think that happens anymore. I think there’s a recognition that the city matters, that the people aren’t just there for the weather. You see a level of ambition that’s been ratcheted up.”
— theguardian.com

This month, audiences will be able to check out the first program to emerge from Vergne's nascent administration: Step and Repeat, a multidisciplinary festival of performing arts, takes place at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA over four Saturday evenings, beginning Sept. 13 [...] Step and Repeat will feature a unique nightly lineup of poetry readings, noise/experimental music, performance art, stand-up comedy, live bands and deejays, all presented side by side.
— LA Weekly

The news that performance and other public programming will return to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is a sign for some that the new director, Philippe Vergne, is already returning the embattled museum to its former strength. Vergne replaced the former director Jeffrey Deitch, whose... View full entry

News Benjamin Paulker interviewed Frank Gehry for Foreign Policy regarding his first project in the Arab World. sameolddoctor was amused "It is funny that Gehry thinks of himself as a humanitarian" but pvbeeber wondered "Not sure why everyone is giving him such a hard time.&nbsp... View full entry

Now that the exhibition has opened at the museum's Geffen Contemporary branch in Little Tokyo, where it will limp along through the middle of September as part of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time Presents series, it's clear that it is the product of an architectural ruling class in Los Angeles that is not so much dysfunctional as increasingly insular.
— Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times

A squadron of U-Hauls descended on the parking lot in front of the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA last weekend, setting up a pop-up architecture exhibition in the first in a series of events called On the Road. The U-Hauls served as temporary displays for the work of up-and-coming, experimental architecture practices here in Los Angeles--where architecture businesses are known for being experimental, even if they don't often get a chance to deploy those innovations in Los Angeles.
— la.curbed.com

Frank Gehry has pulled out of a major architecture exhibition set to open June 2 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, a move that could force the show to find a new venue or face the prospect of being canceled altogether.

The exhibition... is an exploration of the last 25 years of Los Angeles architecture, with work by Gehry, Thom Mayne, Michael Maltzan, Barbara Bestor, Lorcan O'Herlihy and many younger architects.
— latimes.com

The exhibition was planned as an exploration of the last 25 years of Los Angeles architecture, with work by Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Michael Maltzan, Barbara Bestor and many younger architects.

It was funded in part by a Getty Foundation grant of $445,000. No other single show in the PSTP series received a grant as large, according to a Getty press release. A 272-page catalog, co-published by Rizzoli, is already complete.
— latimes.com

Facing delays in finishing the installation of the show, the show will be canceled, or, at best, delayed. View full entry

Being a successful collector or dealer does not qualify one to make substantial decisions towards our collective cultural patrimony.
— art&education

art&education publishes an excellent paper by Nizan Shaked. As the title suggests, it discusses and exposes the forces and conditions behind this billion dollar industry that created by power brokers and billionaire businessman and their art advisers, museum directors and... View full entry

Deitch’s Disneyesque barrio gave New Yorkers who would never dream of getting off the subway north of 96th Street that delightful frisson of proximity to the underclass, just as the graffiti cult provides affluent viewers with the sense that they are in touch with authentic ghetto culture.
— Heather MacDonald, City Journal

Here is a totally hilarious, angry finger-wag from the libertarian/neo-con City Journal. It calls out the "petite" Jeffrey Deitch and LA's Museum of Contemporary Art because, apparently, ensconcing graffiti *within* the museum walls is not enough for the author as a containment of the... View full entry

The Los Angeles Police Department believes one of two French nationals detained on suspicion of vandalism near MOCA's Little Tokyo gallery was the famed street artist known as "Space Invader."
— latimesblogs.latimes.com

LAPD demonstrating real great skills. Jeffrey Deitch, already known as Mr. Urban Maintenance for censoring commissioned artist Blu, is no where to be seen, except to say "If you harness your talent you can be in a museum some day, make a contribution and a living from it." What a real piece of... View full entry

When Los Angeles MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch ordered the removal of artist Blu‘s mural, which he commissioned, from the wall of his museum, he was quickly accused of censorship by various folks in the art community. In response to his act, an anonymous street artist put up a wheatpasted mural near MOCA that depicted Deitch as the Ayatollah Khomeini, dressed in traditional garb, holding a dripping paint roller with outstretched arm – fresh from removing Blu’s mural from the museum’s wall.
— Moca-Latte.org

MOCA further sucks it up to its Blu(es) and PR's a Tea Party like survey on what art 'you'd' suck up to. Peviously View full entry

MOCA commissions a mural from Blu and than finds it offensive and whitewashes it. Artist says it is cencorship. The museum director says he was in Miami art fair when it was painted. latimes MOCA commissions a mural from Blu and than finds it offensive and whitewashes it. Artist says it is... View full entry